October 7 and the “Pumpkin Spice Latte Problem”

The thing that I most connect with in this comic is that the Jews look like ghosts. I identify with that, as I’ve often felt like a ghost here in my Homeland. I guess the big change for me since October 7 is that before I felt like a ghost passing largely unnoticed or unacknowledged. That was sometimes annoying, but usually fine. Or, at least, I was used to it, which made it seem fine if I didn’t think about it too much.

Now I feel like some portion of the population has noticed us and decided we need to be exorcised and banished, while another portion has noticed us and wants us to summarize 3000 years of history in seven words or less and then explain what the hell is up with a bunch of other ghosts in some other country who we don’t even know, while a third portion have noticed us and insist we aren’t ghosts at all—just pale “regular” people who should get over whatever unpleasantness happened in the 1930s and 40s in Europe, or last October, or last week, or last night, or tomorrow, because it’s all the distant past and in our heads and maybe didn’t even happen or certainly isn’t or wasn’t or won’t be as bad as we say it was/is/will be.

But the biggest portion look at me and say “You’re a ghost? I had no idea you were a ghost!”

‘cause I don’t look like a stereotypical ghost.

But I am a ghost.

I’ve been a ghost this entire time.

A panel from the comic/essay "Haunt­ings: Look­ing Back at Fall 2023" by Abby Horowitz. The image shows two adults (rendered as black-and-white outlines) looking at three children in military-esque Halloween costumes. The caption reads: "We began a loop around the parking lot, trying to look like we belonged. We couldn' t escape our sense of dislocation, though; the shadow of war followed us the whole time."

One adult says "AM I BEING RIDICULOUS IF THIS MAKES ME REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE?"

The other adult answers "UM I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE MILITARY
UNIFORM OF SYRIA..."

A thought-bubble above the children reads "JEEZ THESE JEWS ARE SENSITIVE." 

https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/hauntings-looking-back-at-fall-2023

I’d forgotten how much I loved watching this short SF film five years ago…

… and hate living it now.

(Incidentally I don’t recall the bit with Stuart Russel at the end being part of this when I first watched it, and feel it dilutes its power now: there is no reason to say “Given developments in A.I. and drones, someday soon this is going to be real!” It’s already real; it’s called guns: 1 out of every 20 Americans owns an AR-15; 3 in 10 own a gun of some sort. Only half of those guns are stored under lock and key, and only a third unloaded.)

UPDATE: we nuked $1.1 million in medical debt

Remember this project from last November?

Well, for those who like closure:

Y’all did it!

Just before Xmas we closed out the project, having raised a bit more than $10,000 with your help. The end result was the abolition of $1,114,133.50 in shitty medical debt, freeing 2,006 Michiganders across 17 counties from one more dumb late-stage capitalism headache:

Bummed that you missed out on this project? Then I have excellent news:

You and your pals can start your own! The folks at RIP Medical Debt are super sweet and helpful, and it’s a blast.

I want that to be the takeaway here: there are plenty of religious and moral and political and ethical reasons to work on a project like this, but I still believe the best reason to do it is that it is fun. Every day, multiple times each day, it would occur to me: We’re going to nuke a million dollars of medical debt. And just that thought, that a bunch of us regular folk going about our regular lives could do just a little something more and move such a big goddamn rock—it’d make me laugh. It literally tickled me, that notion. And it worked! And that cracks me up, every time it comes to mind.

Good job, all! When you start your project and need a little dough to nuke a little bad medical debt, hit me up.

$10 will erase $1000 of Medical Debt in Michigan RIGHT NOW! 💸

We are facing a lot of terrifying problems right now: climate disaster, civil unrest, labor injustice, opioid abuse, the profusion of hate and extremism.

Most problems cannot be solved by throwing money at them. Medical debt is one that can.

I’m collaborating on a project to erase $1 million of medical debt in Michigan.

Fortunately, because of the way this debt is bundled, it’s possible to buy it extremely cheaply on the open market, for just a penny on the dollar (i.e., $1 buys $100 of bundled medical debt). If bill collectors buy that debt, they will hound the debtor for the full value of the debt, even though they only paid 1/100th of that.

But if we buy the debt, we can just forgive it and clear the books for someone who had some bad luck and didn’t have the insurance to cover it.

Incidentally, in Michigan this burden hits Black communities especially hard; buying and erasing debt here is thus a “Good Deed twofer”: one donation relieves a family’s economic woes AND strikes a blow for racial and economic justice.

A bunch of you have already given (we’re over 76% of the way to our goal!), and that’s amaaaaazing! The more you give, the more we can forgive. THANK YOU!

Eliminate Medical Debt in Michigan TODAY!

Touché, Michael Lewis

Washington Post: “Play it again, Sam: Inside Bankman-Fried’s last year in the crypto game” by Michael Lewis (gift link 🎁)

Before I listened to this, I had no opinion of SBF, apart from the assumption he was yet another contemptibly oblivious man-child “genius” (and mild embarrassment that he’s a Jew, like me).

When I started listening to this, my contempt was swiftly confirmed. But man, by the end, I was goddamned compelled.  Fuck you, Michael Lewis; you win again.

The Best Way to Stop a Bad Guy from Taking Away Books is for Good Guys to Give Away Books

For those interested, in light of Mississippi Book Burning Banning, Seattle Public Library is being fun:

Teens and young adults ages 13 to 26 living anywhere in the U.S. can access our entire collection of e-books and audiobooks. We believe in your right to read what you want, discover yourself and form your own opinions. Fill out the simple form at the bottom of this page to get a Books Unbanned card.

Go forth and read, my darling dears. 📖📚💕

Does Russia Have Any Functional Nukes?

Thunderf00t—who I don’t always agree with or necessarily like—makes an excellent point around the 18 minute mark in this video. The jist of it is this: nuclear weapons are fragile as hell and expensive to maintain (to the tune of ~$1 million per year). If not properly cared for, they don’t kaBOOOOM!🤯 and Chernobyl us all to Mad Max land. Instead, they look perfectly fine and useful, but when you go to launch them, they fizzle like damp firecrackers (albeit damp firecrackers that can spread radiation; but still, while awful, a dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb).

Russia is a first-order corrupt kleptocracy, as demonstrated by their current Ukrainian misadventure. If they haven’t been maintaining the cheap and easy stuff (like tanks), then they sure as hell aren’t maintaining the expensive stuff that’s hard to spot check for compliance (like nukes).

(Honestly, the whole video makes a series of inter-nesting excellent points, and is worth watching. The major thrust is that there are a lot of dogwhistles blowing out there, signaling who is and is not an actual nuclear superpower.)

RECOMMENDED READING/LISTENING: “Balloon Season” by Thomas Ha @PseudoPod_org

This is a “frog boil” story, and may in fact be the perfect frog boil story.  If you’re woke-ish, then it is pretty clearly a climate change story. But if you’re on the political right, it may actually seem to much more obviously be an immigration story. It could be a cautionary tale about the dangers of group think (although its up to the reader to determine of its more about anti-mask group think, QAnon group think, CRT group think) or privilege or income disparity. 

However you read it, the message is the same: It’s a warning against repeating the same old prayer that humans have repeated prior to disaster for Millenia:

I guess it’s happening, but let it happen in some other neighborhood in some other town far away, above someone else’s roof and out of my sight.

Anywhere but here. 

Anywhere else.

Also, absolutely terrific monster-of-the-week. So worth your ears and eyes: PseudoPod 819: “Balloon Season” by by Thomas Ha